An open letter to Senator-elect Sheehy

Congratulations on your successful campaign for the U.S. Senate. With nearly 77 % of eligible Montanans casting ballots, your achievement capturing 53% of the votes over incumbent Jon Tester’s 45% was remarkable.

Now comes the responsibility of representing more than 1.1 million Montanans in the Senate. In addition to sharing legislative powers with the House, the Senate has responsibilities of confirming certain presidential appointees, approving treaties and trying impeachment cases. 

You won’t have full knowledge of all domestic and international issues that will come your way, so we hope you will surround yourself with staff and advisors who have the best interests of our country as their North Star, putting country over politics — as surely you will.

As the 42nd U.S. senator to represent our state you have the responsibility to represent all of us. Within your constituency are 319,682 persons who voted Republican and 276,305 who voted Democrat and a sizeable chunk who didn’t cast a ballot. You will represent Montanans from a variety of organized religions, but only a minority of the state’s population was identified by the 2020 religion census as equivalent to 35% of the state’s population — 1,766 distinct Montana congregations with an estimated 378,000 adherents. 

In short, you will represent many who are “unchurched,” agnostic, atheist or with no preference. 

You will represent men and women in traditional marriage, same-sex marriage, some who consider themselves committed partners, others who are simply living together and many single people by preference or circumstance. Remember the widows and widowers.

While the Census data shows most Montanans are “straight” in sexual orientation, you will also represent about 3% of the state’s population identifying otherwise, including as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual. Each person is a Montanan and your constituent.

Finally, with less than a month before you take your oath of office, it is time to communicate with us. Your campaign made the purposeful choice to limit your public appearances to only selected audiences and friendly radio hosts or with MAGA-conservative national media.

During the campaign you made a point to tell event attendees that you purposely avoided newspaper and television questions and interviews, and they should ignore news reports and instead listen to you and your surrogates. Your campaign spokespeople were largely un-responsive to requests for one-on-ones, comment or information.

Hard-fought political campaigns require “controlling the message” but serving as our representative does not — you now have an obligation to openly communicate with us.

I’d like to offer some suggestions:

In the time between now and Jan. 3, prepare for and schedule an open press conference to be led with a topic of your choosing. Allow for questions.

Introduce the public to the principal staff members you have selected.

Direct your press liaisons to get out and personally meet with reporters who will be covering your Senate tenure.

Until your official Senate website is available for constituents to visit, utilize a social media platform to give us insights and updates on how you are preparing yourself and your office.

 Finally, as you emerge from campaign mode, understand that your actions will be reported by various news organizations. Merging honesty and directness is the best way to manage how your constituency will perceive and evaluate you.

“Maximum disclosure with minimum delay” is an excellent motto. You won’t be expected to know everything. If you don’t know, then say so; if you can’t disclose, say so, but whenever possible give a time when you will be able to do so if at all.

And please keep in mind that reporters and editors are nowhere as fearsome as the Taliban. 

Peter Fox has had a 40-year career in communications beginning with 25 years as a daily newspaper reporter and editor in Wisconsin and Montana. From 1999 to 2003 he served as a Wisconsin cabinet officer under Republican Gov. Tommy G. Thompson before returning to Montana. He and his wife Nikki live in Big Timber. He served in the U.S. Army and the Army National Guard.